all vehicles · every Elantra year · method

Hyundai Elantra 2013

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

1.53 per 1,000

2.6 times this nameplate’s own median · from 345 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1342 ever. 95% lower bound 1.37.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.98	93
2009	0.29	29
2010	0.47	55
2011	0.37	59
2012	0.60	116
2013	1.53	345
2014	0.28	67
2015	0.17	39
2016	0.27	61
2017	0.76	154
2018	0.39	78
2019	0.31	59
2020	0.71	99
2021	0.88	101
2022	0.89	107
2023	1.11	140

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Service Brakes 290 complaints

repair made	95	33%
confirms parts	92	32%
tool confirms	92	32%
confirms	92	32%
tool	92	32%
repair yet	88	30%

Steering 273 complaints

coupler	49	18%
clicking	38	14%
clunking	33	12%
steering coupler	29	11%
play	27	10%
coupling	21	8%

Engine 238 complaints

noise	59	25%
ticking	46	19%
new engine	27	12%
ticking noise	24	10%
piston	21	9%
metal	17	7%

When it breaks

36% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 45,634 miles, from 815 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

4 investigations covering this model year, 2 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 166 complaints about this component over roughly 91 months before an investigation opened.

Hyundai and Kia ABS Module Fires

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10459204 · 10459463 · 10460159 · 10461880 · 10462736 · 10465777

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is verified against a published figure.